Fire chief who left mum to die is promoted to £130k job
He stopped mineshaft rescue on health and safety grounds
A FIRE chief condemned over the botched rescue of a mother – who died after falling 50ft into a mineshaft – has been promoted to a senior post paying over £130,000.
Firefighters were quickly on the scene but senior officer Paul Stewart did not allow a rescue bid for several hours – by which time it was too late to save Alison Hume.
He was later singled out for criticism by the sheriff who investigated the tragedy.
However, after a series of promotions, he has now been appointed Assistant Chief Officer at Scottish Fire and Rescue, on a salary of £133,725 a year.
Last night, Mrs Hume’s furious stepfather Hugh Cowan, 77, of Ayr, said: ‘This makes me feel nauseous.
‘Three different fire chiefs have been in charge since Alison died and still this man continues to climb the ladder.
‘He left that lassie to die down a pit because he refused to let men – who knew better than him – go down and get her.
‘Is this what the fire service think of the community they serve? To promote a man who let our girl die?
‘It’s horrendous. The man looks bound for the top job now.’
Mrs Hume, 44, was taking a shortcut home across a field when she fell into the mineshaft in 2008.
She was found shortly after 2am by the elder of her two daughters, Jayne, then 17, who had gone out looking for her. The first Strathclyde
Fire and Rescue vehicles arrived by 2.30am and, shortly after 3am, a firefighter was lowered into the hole using ropes.
Mrs Hume was badly hurt, but conscious. The firefighter gave her blankets and oxygen but she was needing urgent medical help. By 3.25am, group commander Fred Howe was leading the operation and, with paramedics advising him Mrs Hume’s survival was ‘timecritical’, he resolved to get her out.
Mr Stewart arrived on the scene with responsibility for dealing with media inquiries but took charge of operations when he discovered he was the most senior officer present.
He refused to allow a paramedic to be lowered into the pit and ruled
– wrongly – that the 18 firefighters present lacked the training to carry out the rescue, insisting it was a job for the Strathclyde Mountain Rescue Team.
It took hours for the mountain rescue volunteers to arrive and, as they pulled Mrs Hume out of the shaft shortly before 8am, she suffered a heart attack due to hypothermia. She was taken by air ambulance to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock but it was too late.
Mr Stewart was heavily criticised in the findings of a fatal accident inquiry held at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in 2010.
Sheriff Desmond Leslie condemned him and his colleague Billy Thomson, saying their evidence ‘focused on self-justification’.
He added: ‘I found their evidence to be bullish, if not arrogant, in their determination to justify the subservience of the need to carry out a rescue to the need to fulfil to the letter Strathclyde Fire and Rescue
Service Brigade policy.’ A probe by Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Fire and Rescue Authorities said the seven hours Mrs Hume spent in the shaft ‘greatly decreased’ her survival chances.
It was revealed in 2013 that Mr Stewart had been given a senior role in fire prevention at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.
He was then made area manager for Scottish Fire and Rescue’s training college.
Liz Barnes, the service’s director of people and organisational development, said: ‘We have appointed Paul Stewart to the position of Assistant Chief Officer following a robust, transparent and competitive recruitment process.
‘All candidates were considered on their individual merits and a final decision was made following a thorough process.’
The service’s website lists Mr Stewart as having responsibility for training.
‘He left that lassie to die down a pit’